Texted messages in China: A pragmatic approach to blessing through mobile phones

Jing Deng

Abstract

On the advent of festivities and national holidays in modern China, one way of conveying regards is to text blessing messages on mobile phones, in addition to mailing cards, calling on ground lines and door-to-door visits. The language of the texted message has become a new way of communication, displaying distinctive features that make it successful in the context of competing communicative media, such as radio, TV, regular telephone, e-mail and internet. The emergence of this form of communication reflects a shift in the cultural values and customs, which, in turn, involves a shifting in the social and psychological approaches to human interaction. This article analyzes the pragmatic aspect of blessing messages on mobile phones, to shed light on the linguistic manipulation and on the social and psychological motivations for speakers linguistic options when they formulate such messages.